1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the destruction of waste material and, more particularly, it pertains to apparatus for disposing of toxic and hazardous materials by pyroplasmic decomposition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The disposal of waste material is a growing problem due primarily to the fact that the volume of waste material is growing faster than existing disposal equipment and methods can handle it economically. Most attempts to dispose of waste materials by combustion have included furnaces or rotary kilns. More recently, apparatus and methods for waste destruction have included plasma pyrolysis, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,877, by which waste materials are fed into a plasma arc burner where they are atomized, ionized, and subsequently discharged into a reaction chamber to be cooled and recombined into product gases and particulate matter. The method of this patent involves the use of a solvent that is miscible with the waste materials, such as methyl ethyl ketone with PCBS.
While the disposal of waste materials with systems of the type described have been satisfactory, it is desirable to increase the feed throughput and reduce the formation of carbon particulate without the use of expensive solvents such as methyl ethyl ketone (MEK).